RV Adventure of a Life Time – Final Installment
After returning to Colorado to enjoy the city’s fireworks displays from a campsite in Cheyenne Mountain State Park. The third installment is about our most fantastic RV Adventure to the southeast and the entire east coast. Nope, we had never ventured to the East Coast. We planned, saved , and finally it was time!Mid-August of 2024 hubby, I, Mystic, Taco, and Sammy, took off for a three-month RV Adventure, across the south-eastern United States, then covered the north-east all the way up to Bar Harbor, Maine. What fun experience in our 38-foot fifth-wheel pulled by our one-ton Dodge Pickup.
We traveled through Kansas and Missouri. Stopping in Branson, MO. Boy was it hot. Visited Dolly Parton’s Stampede. It’s a dinner club and show venue. Thank goodness it was cooler than the 104 degrees outside.
Spent a couple of days in Sumer, Mississippi visiting friends. What a spread they have, land, pond, and home. Their pond has fish that eat mosquito larva, so no mosquito problem. We sat on their back porch, sipped iced tea and had a nice visit.
Then on to Georgia for a couple of days to visit with Kathy and her bird, Reggie celebrating his 27th hatchday. Taco and Reggie enjoyed corn muffins. Sadly in April 2025, Reggie recently passed away from a stroke
I had two book signings during our RV Adventure. One at Mystic’s Chow Chow Breeders, D & M Farm Kennel, reunion at the Cherokee/Smoky Mountain KOA in North Carolina. It was so much fun, almost fifty people, lots of very well-behaved chows over five days.
Then it was north to Carthage, NC to see friends.
In Mystic Connecticut we had the best Pizza we’d had in our lives at Mystic Pizza. You remember Mystic Pizza from the movie with the same name.
We stopped at Virginia Beach KOA and encountered an interesting situation. When we arrived, the person who checked us in and showed us to our site, said nonchalantly, “Oh by the way, the Hell’s Angels are staying with us for a few days. But don’t worry, they brought their own security.” Not that we are phobic or anything…but t
hat isn’t something you hear when you check in usually. Ten or twelve members return from partying one night at 1:30 a.m., was disconcerting. Other than that, it was uneventful but their presence was felt all over the campground. Our dog even wanted to check out their bikes.
Salem was a blast. Buskers (street entertainers) were on or at every corner or storefront, juggling, singing, magic, playing instruments, and the stores were full of fun. The streets were soooo narrow, so we took the trolly. Saw the Witch’s house and the house used in the movie Hocus Pocus.
Majestic Niagara Falls, there are no words. Such a feat of Mother Nature.
Having never been to Maine, we didn’t know what to expect. Cape Cod had beautiful sunsets with great seafood.
Bar Harbor was more of the same. Our trailer site was right on the shore with several fantastic sunsets! Loved the sound of the waves crashing on the shore has we slept.
The second book signing was in a small town in upstate New York with Carol Henry, another author from my publishing house. I love visiting with readers and other authors! We enjoyed dinner out with Carol and her hubby, Gary. What a blast.
Finally, sadly it was time to head towards home. Had to stop in Ohio to see more friends.
Then we hightailed it home arriving just days before a multi-day snowstorm dropped 20 inches at home in Colorado! Next Sunday we’ll have the regular Sunday Snippet! Please stop by!
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Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog, My Say What Blog and tagged Bar Harbor, Book Signing, Cape Cod, Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel, Delaware, East Coast, Mystic CN, Niagara Falls, RV Adventure, Salem, Sunsets by Tena Stetler with 1 comment.
RV Adventure Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming Bound
In May 2024 we packed to leave on our second RV adventure to Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming, and back to Colorado.We returned to Colorado for a scheduled book signing in early May then hit the road a couple of weeks later ending up in Iowa for four days. There we met with friends that had been neighbors in Colorado, a long-time friend from high school days, and my cousins. Outrun a couple of tornados in Iowa, barely. Did you know there is nowhere to seek safe shelter in a fifth wheel trailer in a campground? Call me a wimp, but while Colorado does have an occasional tornado, we don’t have them on a daily or regular basis. We packed up the fifth wheel and left shortly after sunrise.
Next we landed in South Dakota, stayed in a campground close to Mount Rushmore. Truly a man made feat. Then it was on to visit with friends that lived only a few miles from the rock monument. We relaxed at the campground then took off for the Reptile Gardens a place our friends claimed we just had to see before leaving. They were right! It was a blast. We spent almost five hours there. If you ever get a chance to visit it, by all means do so. It’s a must see. It looks like one of those cheesy off the highway tourist traps. But its not! Funny story. While we were touring the Reptile Gardens, its a building that is two stories tall with a huge antrum. I was dressed in a tie-dyed shirt and jeans. All the creatures that were loose keep eyeing me. A little parrot followed us where ever we went. As we passed the snakes in their enclosures, each one came to the front of the glass and watched me. Now mind you they didn’t behave this way with anyone else. Finally, one of the guides stopped us as we walked up one of the paths and said that the employees that feed the animals all wear tie-dyed shirts, so that was why I was drawing so much attention.
Devil’s Tower, WY
Reptile Gardens, SD
Off to Wyoming to see Devils Tower. Spent a couple of days in Thermopolis, WY. The town in rich in history, rock formations, and interesting street signs. Stopped off on the way home in Riverton,WY, to see friends and Bugg, a bird friend of Taco’s. 
Then it was back home to Colorado to prepare for our grand adventure from the deep south and all the way up the east coast. A lot to see and we had such fun. Watch for my third and final installment, Southeast, and all the way up the East Coast. What fun!
In celebration of Spring, This week’s Sunday Snippet is the award-winning Raven’s Hollow Spring Magic. Pssst… It’s on sale for .99 cents for a limited time. Pull up a chair, grab a drink of your choice from the cooler, a Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter cookie from the plate and enjoy the snippet from Raven’s Hollow Spring Magic. Second book in the Raven’s Hollow Series.
Let’s take a peek at what Raven’s Hollow Spring Magic is about. Only #99cents!
Spring is in full bloom in Raven’s Hollow, a small town in the Colorado Rockies with a population of unique townspeople. Blaze, a dragon shifter, and Wynter, a witch, are neck-deep in wedding preparations, when Wynter’s mother, Jade, goes missing after opening her new antique store, and attending the Simon estate sale where she procured an ancient jelly bean machine. Frantic with worry, Blaze and Wynter track her last movements via the store’s ancient, grainy, security footage. What it reveals is nothing short of shocking. As deputy sheriff, it’s Blaze’s responsibility to find his soon-to-be mother-in-law. But at what cost?
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Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog, My Say What Blog by Tena Stetler with 4 comments.
Foot Loose and Fancy Free on an RV Adventure
A different Sunday Snippet. Las Vegas, Santa Fe and Zion National Park our First RV Adventure after retirement.Whew what a year 2024. First let me explain. In December of 2023, my husband finally retired. Yippee. We had planned RV travel for years that we couldn’t complete in one or two weeks in our 38 foot fifth wheel trailer. Figured we wait until retirement, then we’d be footloose and fancy free!
We began in April, 2024. We spent three weeks traveling to Las Vegas, in and around Santa Fe and Zion National Park.
Santa Fe was our first stop on our RV Adventure – There are several good restaurants in Santa Fe. In fact its one of the reasons we stopped in Santa Fe on our way to Las Vegas. We would have tried out more but the parking is difficult towards downtown, narrow streets and small parking places. 
Then it was time to gather up our stuff and point the truck and trailer towards Las Vegas.
In Las Vegas, we stopped to visit with friends for a few days. My how their Desert Tortoises had grown. Their habitat took up half okay, maybe only one-third of our friend’s back yard. WOW!
It was unbelievably hot, in the upper 90’s, according to our standards, but not theirs. We’re cold weather people.
Which is why we are having trouble planning a visit to the Arches. By April it’s in the 90s. Walking around looking at rock formations in over 90 degree weather isn’t high on my list. But traveling from Colorado to Utah in February and March, when the weather is cooler, is a recipe for snowy disaster. LOL Especially, with the wild weather swings Mother Nature is creating. But we will figure it out.
Zion National Park was interesting. The rock formations were more varied in color than in Colorado. But I guess having lived all my life in Colorado, I was a little under whelmed by Zion National Park. But I’m glad we went there and saw the area, which did have a nice KOA Campground. So for now, I’ll leave you with pictures of Zion. Enjoy. Next week our second RV Adventure into the midwest, South Dakota, and Wyoming. Please check back.
n celebration of Spring, This week’s Sunday Snippet is the award-winning Raven’s Hollow Spring Magic. Pssst… It’s on sale for .99 cents for a limited time. Pull up a chair, grab a drink of your choice from the cooler, a Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter cookie from the plate and enjoy the snippet from Raven’s Hollow Spring Magic. Second book in the Raven’s Hollow Series.
Let’s take a peek at what Raven’s Hollow Spring Magic is about. Only #99cents!
Spring is in full bloom in Raven’s Hollow, a small town in the Colorado Rockies with a population of unique townspeople. Blaze, a dragon shifter, and Wynter, a witch, are neck-deep in wedding preparations, when Wynter’s mother, Jade, goes missing after opening her new antique store, and attending the Simon estate sale where she procured an ancient jelly bean machine. Frantic with worry, Blaze and Wynter track her last movements via the store’s ancient, grainy, security footage. What it reveals is nothing short of shocking. As deputy sheriff, it’s Blaze’s responsibility to find his soon-to-be mother-in-law. But at what cost?
Views: 24
Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog, My Say What Blog by Tena Stetler with 1 comment.
Super Bowl Sunday Snippet Plus
As anticipation builds for #SuperBowl 59, fans are already abuzz about its anticipated matchups, halftime show, and memorable commercials. This year’s championship game promises to be an unforgettable event, showcasing not only American football at its peak, but also an array of culture, history, and entertainment. Kickoff is at 6:30 p.m. EST in New Orleans, Sunday, February 9, 2025 .Here’s a few Super Bowl Sunday Fun Snippets!The first Super Bowl was played January 15, 1967 in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California. The National Football League champion Green Bay Packers defeated the American Football League champion Kansas City Chiefs by the score of 35–10.
According to Restaurant Ware, next to Thanksgiving, the Super Bowl is the second most popular day to order take-out food. An estimated 48 million (1 in 7 Americans) are projected to order take-out. Pizza accounts for about 60% of take-out orders. Yep that’ s me Pizza. Only I make my own.
Another popular food is chicken wings, an estimated 1.25 billion will be eaten on Super Sunday. In addition, 19.4 million pounds of chips (potato and tortilla) are purchased. Nearly 140,000 pounds of avocados are purchased for guacamole dips. (Mexico is exporting 110,000 tons of avocados.) For Super Bowl weekend 325.5 million gallons of beer (50 million cases) will be drunk. Super Sunday is the second most popular day of the year to grill after the Fourth of July.
In last year’s Super Bowl, the American Gaming Association estimated 68 million Americans had wagered over $23 billion on the game. Wagering on Super Bowl LIX is expected to be greater.
Kendrick Lamar will headline the halftime show at the Super Bowl. Lamar has won 22 Grammy Awards (including five this week), third most for any rapper.
Louisiana native Jon Batiste, a Golden Globe winner, Oscar winner and Grammy Award winner for album of the year in 2022, will sing the national anthem.
Trombone Shorty and Christian singer Lauren Daigle will collaborate on “America the Beautiful,”
Ledisi will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
Worldwide, the Super Bowl is expected to be available in more than 180 countries.
As reported by Nielsen, the average audience for last year’s Super Bowl was 123.7 million, setting a record. The Super Bowl aired on CBS and Univision as well as streamed on Paramount+ and other platforms.
The “Taylor Swift Effect”, last year females accounted for a record 47.5% of the total Super Bowl audience. Females age 18-24 had a year-over-year growth in viewing of +24%. Taylor Swift has been dating Kansas City’s Travis Kelce and, once again, is expected to be a spectator at Super Bowl LIX.
Last but not least, did you know that Andy Reid is the winningest head coach for both teams. Before joining the Chiefs in 2013, Reid had been the head coach at Philadelphia from 1999 to 2012.
Will you be watching?
So there you have it. Now on to the regularly scheduled Sunday Snippet the award-winning A Vampire’s Unlikely Alliance Not what you’ve come to expect from a Vampire Tale! Join Stefan and Brandy for an exciting romantic fantasy where magic may save the day. But will it be too late?
How A Vampire’s Unlikely Alliance all began. You know my family loves to camp. Right? We have visited a great number of the State and National Parks. We’ll spend time in more this year. During a camping trip we stayed right smack dab in the middle of Glacier National Park. At night around the campfire under a full moon you could hear the wolves howl and the coyotes sing. I imagined a vampire running through the bush over the trails, but it couldn’t be an ordinary vampire. And who would he meet on the trails?
Stefan, a Native American vampire, was a character from my first book in A Demon’s Witch Series, A Demon’s Witch. It became a best seller five months after its release. For A Vampire’s Unlikely Alliance, I wanted to write a different vampire tale, so rather than leave him as the Vampire Council’s assassin, I released him from service and he moved to Montana, took a job as the midnight DJ for a small radio station on the outskirts of Glacier National Park. Different huh? Research for this book was a trip to Glacier National Park and I drew upon my time as a DJ at a local classic rock station KKFM in Colorado Springs. Not to mention several virtual trips to the enchanting land down under, Australia.
Won’t you join Stefan and Brandy on an exciting romantic fantasy where vampires and gryphons, warlocks and demons, witches and faeries walk among us. Some creatures are willing to put aside their differences to work together for the good of man and magic kind, other’s will stand in the way.
A little about A VAMPIRE’S UNLIKELY ALLIANCE:
Stefan is a Native American vampire, former assassin for the Vampire Council. In a twist of fate, he now DJ’s the midnight shift for a small radio station in Whitefish, Montana, on the edge of Glacier National Park where his secret is safe until…
Born in Ireland, Brandy now works as a park ranger and trail guide in the park. During a full moon, Stefan and Brandy’s paths cross in a near physical collision on a trail. Their attraction is immediate and undeniable, almost as if fate demanded it.
Their union was foretold long ago in Irish folk tales where vampires and gryphons, warlocks and demons, witches and faeries must work together for the good of man and magic kind. Is a trip to Ireland the key to unravelling secrets and returning the magic? And even more importantly, will their love survive the trip?
A peek between the pages of A VAMPIRE’S UNLIKELY ALLIANCE:
It was nearly midnight when he cut across the Sun Road to another trailhead, so intent on his goal that he nearly collided with an attractive young woman. He skidded to a stop, spraying gravel, rocks, and small twigs down the road in front of him. A pinecone dislodged and bounced along the road past her. Tall and slender, she had miles of fiery-red hair that hung down her back in a cascade of curls. Intense emerald eyes stared back at him as he attempted to regain his composure, not to mention balance. What the hell was she doing here at this time of night?
“Whoa.” She stepped lightly to the side to avoid the flying debris. “You really should watch where you’re going, especially at that speed.” Her voice scolded, but the smile on her lips teased. “Someone could get hurt.”
Pretending to pant, he shrugged, holding his palms up in surrender. “Just trying to get my run in before work. Stefan Talltree, at your service.” He stepped closer, leaned over in an exaggerated bow, and caught her hand, brushing his lips over the palm and wrist, inhaling her sweet scent. AB negative with a pulse of adrenaline. Perfect. Her pulse beat a tattoo against his lips. He backed away.
Her heart thundered as she drew her hand from his grasp. “The name’s Brandy. Pleased to meet you, Stefan.” Her smile reached up into her bright eyes as they swept over him with an appreciative glance, an experience he enjoyed.
Her voice had a hint of Irish lilt to it. He liked that too.
“Where do you work that requires you to report in at—” She glanced at her watch. “—midnight?”
Nostrils flaring, he paused. Blood? Not hers. The sound of Brandy’s voice brought his attention back to her and the situation at hand. “Oh, shit, I’ve gotta go!” He sprinted off, leaving her standing alone.
As he started down the trail, the tree branches swayed in the silvery moonlight, casting eerie shadows across the trail’s edge. The breeze brought with it the coppery scent of fresh blood mixed with sulfur. He turned for one last look at her as she wrinkled her nose before silently creeping into the wind, tracking the source of the stench.
Available at Amazon Amazon UK , Amazon AU, itunes, and Barnes & Noble.
I hope you enjoyed this weeks Snippet! Be sure and check back for another Sunday Snippet next week!
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Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog, My Say What Blog and tagged A Vampire's Unlikely Alliance, Shapeshifters, Super Bowl Sunday Snippet, Tena Stetler, Vampire, Witches by Tena Stetler with comments disabled.
